A good word is as a good tree, whose roots are firm and its branches reach to the sky… It yields its fruits at all times by the permission of its Lord. God thus sets forth similitudes for mankind, that they may be mindful. But the likeness of an evil word is that of an evil tree, uprooted, having no stability. God makes the believers steadfast with the Mighty Word in this life and the Hereafter; but God allows wrongdoers to stray. God does what He wills. - The Holy Qur'an

Saturday, June 17, 2006

A Study of the Soul

The moment that marked not only the end of my physics exam (which literally began with laughter) but also the end of 2 months and 10 days of what I would like to call hardcore revision: piles of notes (colourful, attempting to make themselves seem less grim); muscle cramps (the proof); and the occasional escape to the table tennis table with ma chère Maman (this has been much kinder to me than my dad's brutal tennis forehands), came and went, and didn't even bother to declare its presence as I'd imagined it would.

But surely it must have meant something? Shouldn't I have spontaneously begun jumping up and down and giggling madly... or at the very least made some indication of the fact the tension that had been crawling over me for the past few months had conclusively flown off (to be replaced by a smaller, more discreet version in the form of anxiety over my results)?

Has drowning my mind in the tumultuous blast furnace of undiluted study finally killed (er, reduced) my soul, leaving me unable to taste of the joys of the long-awaited summer?

A slightly stronger tinge of melodrama would have you think so.

I took off my school jumper yesterday with a sense of triumph. Had my brother had his way, however, such a historic act would have been accompanied by a more ceremonious ritual - "You're taking your jumper off? But... it's the last time you're ever going to wear it!" I was hot, so, like, whatever. And anyway - it's not like I'm emotionally attached to the fish-decorated acrylic weave.